Is Beatrix all right?

[kiramdear]

This is very un-Dutch. These kinds of things never used to happen in Holland.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/ap_ ... rade_crash

[doctorwho]

Such a tragedy.

[kiramdear]

I'm sure everyone is completely shocked. Ten years ago this kind of craziness was virtually unheard of. What surprises me most is that no one had an idea that he could do that kind of thing. It signals a break in the "village mentality" that has been one of the pillars of security of Dutch society in the past.

A friend of mine, an English guy, was teaching English in The Hague to a group of Dutch policemen and women, including a woman captain who one day asked the following question to any foreigners in the class: Do you know why there are no serial killers in Holland? Several people offered an explanation but she interrupted them - It's not because the Dutch are any different by nature, as much as it is the fact that there is simply no place in Holland to get rid of a body unobserved. Period. Everybody knows everything all the time because they are elbow to elbow compared with the large nations, very densely populated. A killer would have to drag the bodies to Germany to have a hope of escape.

[johnallg]

That explanation is morbidly funny.....